thanks hank, ...i think you're cool dude...you are always so resonable and supportive!!
here's what i said, baptie was typically emotional, crying etc.....
Good morning, my name is susan davis. I am an active sex worker of 24 years and have worked in many areas of the sex industry including on the street in vancouver’s DTES. I have served time in prison and survived addiction but am also a classical piano player and love to knit and sew. I am a member of the BC Coalition of Experiential communties, member of the Canadian adult entertainment council and the development coordinator for and a member of canada’s first sex workers cooperative- the west coast cooperative of sex industry professionals.
During the Developing Capacity for Change Project, in 2006 Vancouver sex workers expressed their desire to explore cooperative business models as a way to generate alternative sources of income, increase health and safety, build community capacity and begin to take control of our collective destiny.
Vancouver sex workers from many genres of the sex industry including the downtown eastside community have been working hard to create a framework for this cooperative and have finalized governance policies, decision making procedures, terms of reference, membership criteria, code of conduct, and conflict management procedures that reflect what they envision as a community.
The cooperative membership reflects the diversity of the sex working community as it includes women, men and trans-individuals as well as those from different ‘classes’ and varying capacities and abilities. More specifically, sex workers engaged are multi-literate and culturally diverse. First Nations, Asian, Caucasian, and Black workers and workers of mixed race are currently invested.
We were formally incorporated in February of 2008.
The plans defined by sex workers themselves for their cooperative included a number of enterprises such as plans intended to create alternative income sources for sex industry workers wishing to exit and of course the controversial cooperative safe work site other wise known as the cooperative brothel/ .
For 2 ½ years I tried to secure funding for development of a food manufacturing and diner theater enterprise based on the history of sex work museum exhibit created by sex workers and in partnership simon fraser university. We had hoped to have that enterprise going for the Olympics so sex workers displaced by security zones could have a chance to earn some money during the games but apparently this government doesn’t even support exiting opportunities for sex workers.
This action could have developed into a self sustaining exiting opportunity generating revenue to pay people working in the various aspects of the enterprise and given them an opportunity to earn money outside of the sex industry while gaining the confidence and experience they need to compete for employment in the mainstream job market.
Unfortunately, funding for sex workers is often a low priority. We are always last in line and the first to get cut. What is even more difficult is in times like these when the cuts are broad and sweeping affecting many women’s organizations, people become desperate and begin undermining each other in a desperate competition for funding.
For example. A misinformation campaign perpetuated by some women’s organizations, described canada’s first sex worker cooperative as a plan to open multiple brothels in time for the Olympics. They stated that the cooperative was likely to be controlled by organized crime, that only elite indoor workers would likely be working in the brothel and that the plans would harm street entrenched sex workers and contribute to the trafficking and harm of women in the sex industry.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. A cooperative by its very nature is not controlled by any one person but rather is directed by the membership voting. Even when confronted with the fact that our cooperative was developed by sex workers including those in the DTES and that the brothel plan was specifically intended for use by street entrenched workers to increase their safety and had nothing to do with the Olympics they continued to promote the cooperative as exploitative and to undermine our activities. I can only assume this was an attempt to eliminate any possible sources of development funding by confusing people about what our activities actually would be.
It worked, we were not funded. We are not funded. The last 6 proposals I have submitted have been turned down We have given up on finding funding and are now trying find ways to raise the $600,000 ourselves. I am a sex worker and am funded by my own sex work. I get no money from so called organized crime and the “billion dollar sex industry” If some groups have their way I will not even have the right to earn money that way and will be left to stand in line for a welfare check that doesn’t even come close to being a livable amount. I will not have any time to continue working on these issues. I will be in food lines and fighting to survive.
Also, recently I have been told that my choice to be a sex worker contributes to a culture of death, is a sell out to other women, that I am evil, should repent and should commit to not do sex work in order to protect other women.
Once again, the rights of sex workers are secondary to those of everyone else. I have a right under the international charter of human rights to choose employment over poverty, to work at a job which I freely choose, to favorable conditions and remunerations for that work and to be given the tools to make safe decisions about my work. The charter isn’t just a piece of paper. Prostitution is not illegal in this country. Where are my rights as a worker?
The hardest part of this competition between us all is the sex workers who don’t survive it. 4 members of canada’s first sex workers cooperative have died since we incorporated in 2008. I personally have paid a price also being labeled the “pro-prostitution lobby”, the front girl for organized crime, as profiting from the trafficking of women and children and of course my favourite, unregulated ejaculation responses profiteer.
I saw an article published in an online forum about the “Olympic brothel” as promoted by these groups which included my full name and in the comments section people described how I should be bashed in the head with a shovel, decapitated and that they wanted to defecate on my headless body…all based on a lie, a violation of my human rights, promoted by women….
The bitter and cut throat competition that arises as a result of funding cuts pits us all against one another and does worse, it harms women.
Rape crisis centers and support services for women are extremely important and already under funded. We must try to find way to ensure that all of the important programs and organizations represented here are funded and supported or people will continue to fall through the cracks.
We must recognize that this is a classic divide and conquer move on the part of the government and that as long as we continue to attack, undermine, bicker and compete with each other, we will not move forward. We must find ways to control our emotions and to see the bigger picture. This is not about one person’s beliefs or political goals, this is about all of us. We need to listen to and respect each other’s choices and experiences or nothing will ever change.
If you would like to know more about how sex industry workers are working towards safety and realizing their rights, our contact information and the website related to our work can be found on the back of this sex consumers educational materials we are developing to work with our other labor organizing plans.
wish me luck...i hate these face off with abolitionists.....
